For those considering robbing coffee shops this holiday season, Dutch Bros. is not the best choice. No, seriously, they will shoot you.

As reported by both the Register-Guard and the Oregonian, on the evening of November 24, two men attempted to rob a Eugene Dutch Bros. Shots were exchanged and the final toll was 1 robber, a Sirus Combs, shot dead, one robber escaped and an unharmed, unidentified Dutch Bros. employee. The event occurred at 2150 Franklin Boulevard and is still under investigation. According to the Oregonian, the police say that shots were fired from more than one weapon.

Dutch Bros. originated in Grants Pass, Ore., and i’s main operations are still based there. The local newspaper, the Daily Courier, ran an article explaining the cautions owners Travis and Dane Boersma took following the incident. Thus far, there has already been a company-wide meeting regarding both the event and safety. What remains clear though is that robbers might want to think twice before pulling a gun, because not everyone is going to roll over and take their shit.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 29th, 2010 at 01:48 by Melissa Haskin and is filed under Business, Crime.
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What a difference a week makes.
Dutch Bros is giving the robbery victim at least a month off with pay and will welcome him back when he’s ready. DA is not charging him (Not giving him a medal either, which I think he deserves) and now Dutch Bros is cutting the shop to daylight hours for a while and posting a security guard.
I cited the Emerald because I obviously don’t know the difference between Eugene newspapers and found the article the same place I found you; Google.
The relevant part of my comment was a quote attributed to the Dutch Bros company mouthpiece so I felt safe enough using it. Does the Emerald out and out make this type of stuff up on a regular basis?
It was shaping up to be another corporate screw-job where the employee gets sacked for saving his own life. Too many similar instances where the hero gets the shaft and the bosses justify it by laying it off on “Policy”.
In any event, I was commenting on your statement “No, seriously, they will shoot you”. Wasn’t disagreeing with you, sorry you took it that way. Just adding a bit of my own commentary, implying that the company “no weapons” policy means that in order for an employee to defend him or her self, that employee would have to violate company policy and thereby put themselves at the mercy of the the corporate pricks. Certainly wasn’t picking a fight with you. I’ll have to make my comments more clear in the future.
If Dutch Bros has to get around the shysters in corporate and the sewer rat litigators by saying “No Weapons” wink, wink, nudge, nudge, then that’s OK in my book.
I think it would be a better world if more robbery victims turned the table on their attackers instead of going along with it. The cops and other experts say that the odds favor that course of action. But it’s not a 100% guaranteed that if you just give it up, they’ll take the loot and go. I would rather pull my gun and shoot than take the chance of being in the small but real percentage of dead victims. Just ask Chris Spears or Chester Yeom.
Thanks, Matt

villa rios: I do apologize for listing the owners wrong. I read the Daily Courier article while home for Thanksgiving and hadn’t yet decided to write my own article (you have to pay to read Daily Courier articles online, whereas my family pays to get it delivered o the house) . Thus, when I wrote my article, being from Grants Pass, I relied on my own knowledge of who was owner, forgetting that Dane had passed away. I admit my error and apologize, though the error in no ways changes the meaning of my article. Further, you’re going to attack someone, you might want to site your sources, or perhaps you need to hire a new research staff.

Matt Mahony: OK first of all, who cites the ODE? Since when are they a reliable resource, especially compared to the Oregonian and the Register Guard. Moreover, if you had actually checked my sources before refuting me, you would have seen that the Register-Guard’s headline was, wait for it, wait for it, “Dutch Bros. barista shoots, kills robber in Eugene”. Hmmmm I wonder what that means. In addition, if there were three people at the scene, one fled and more than one weapon was fired, what do you think happened? Not to mention, there is a difference between policy and enforcing policy. Do you really think it’s safe for 24-hour Dutch Bros, to leave their employees alone and unarmed? Also, where exactly did you read that “In any event, the misguided couple who own the Dutch Bros Coffee Co don’t like the idea of letting their barristas defend themselves from viscous thugs.”? Nowhere in anything I read, did I come across anything that said this. In fact nowhere did I find anything from Travis Boersma condemning the actions of his employee.

Maybe not. According to this story http://www.dailyemerald.com/news/alleged-armed-robber-shot-to-death-at-dutch-bros-wednesday-night-1.1797825 , Dutch Bros has a “No Weapons” policy for employees.
So it may turn out that the citizen who defended himself against the robbers may be in Dutch for his efforts. The information released so far does not tell us if the citizen used his own weapon or one taken from the felons.
In any event, the misguided couple who own the Dutch Bros Coffee Co don’t like the idea of letting their barristas defend themselves from viscous thugs.